The Madness of Elizabeth May
by Raspberrycakes16
Summary: An innocent, gentle girl plagued by fears, and slowly going insane. An offer she can't resist. Except she doesn't see the price that comes attached. She is blind to everything except for her goal, to make her longtime attraction finally fall in love with her. But it isn't really love. It's just a short obsession, one she'll live to regret. WilliamxOC, SebastianxOC
1. The mirror

Chapter one: The Mirror

_The joker girl's mask falls off her face and onto the floor with a crash, breaking the delicate porcelain into millions of_ _sparkling blue and silver pieces. She tries to hide her face, but it's to no use. The young woman is easily recognizable, even with half of her face covered in the disgusting curse she brought on herself. Everyone's eyes widen.  
_

_"...Elizabeth?"_

* * *

The warm afternoon light shines in through the windows, lighting up the hallways and the offices. The hallway is completely empty, seeing as everyone is working in their offices or out on field duty. Soft footsteps echo gently as a young woman makes her way by. She is roughly about eighteen years old, but looks only fourteen. It's clear that she is stalling for time and that wherever she is heading, she doesn't want to go there. A stack of papers is held neatly in between two of her hands. She walks over to a window and puts her papers down, looking wistfully at the sky.

She is a neat and gentle looking girl, who seems to be very young and innocent. She wears a work blouse that is two sizes too big to conceal an obvious fact, tucked into her navy blue pleated skirt hangs down below her knees in a straight line. Oddly for her age, she wears no makeup, high socks and no heels, replacing them with a pair of nice black shoes. Her raven black hair is tied back in two braids. It's a beautiful colour, so black it's blue, but no one pays attention to it. Her large, double ringed yellow green eyes are framed by square wire rimmed black glasses.

The shinigami girl's name is Elizabeth, a common name for a young woman. She works in the human resources department, where she studies death rates of humans and readies to-die lists for the shinigami of the dispatch department to complete. She loves her job, and she always gets her work done, just like a certain other department head.

Elizabeth is going to see William to deliver personally the stack of papers she just finished. She takes a lot of pride in her work, and is delighted to have him look it over personally. She also worries more than she should that he won't like it, and will ignore her even more than he already does.

Elizabeth has really liked William since she met him and cares a lot about him. She wishes he'd pay more attention to her than he did. He did no more than commend her on her dedication every now and then. Otherwise he ignores her completely. She wishes she could be good enough. She wishes there was some way to take his eyes off of his work for one minute to see her.

But that will never happen. She knows this in the bottom of her heart, but still tries to impress him anyway. Elizabeth sighs and gathers her papers, and sets off down the hallway once again. It's obvious she's very nervous as she's walking towards the end of the hallway. Her steps slow down, and she bites her lip, a nervous habit.

She stops right in front of a door, and tucks in her blouse once more, and straightens her glasses before knocking on the door, three gentle taps.

"Enter" The familiar, sharp voice says. She opens the door.

"Um, sir… I-I brought you the papers you asked for y-yesterday." She stutters as she opens the door.

William raises an eyebrow. "Speak louder, Elizabeth May, I can hardly hear you."

She swallows and repeats the sentence, only just a bit more audible. William realizes that this is the loudest and most confident she is going to get, speaking just over a whisper. He sighs and adjusts his glasses.

"Thank you. You've finished a day early. If only everyone in the department worked as well as you, Elizabeth."

"T-t-t-thank you, s-sir."

"If you could please put it on my desk in the black folder, that would be lovely." He prompts, seeing as Elizabeth is still standing there blankly, a huge blush on her cheeks.

She jumps and hurries over to the black folder. In her rush, she has overturned a bin with scrapped work and papers. She squeaks at her mistake and quickly collects them. She realizes that this is turning into a big mess. She apologizes and runs out the door without being dismissed, closing it behind her.

She sighs as she walks down the corner, trying not to tear up. Why does she have to mess everything up? Is there anything she can do without disgracing herself any further? She hangs her head as she walks with her hands folded. Now she's ruined every chance she had of him even paying attention to her.

She walks back into her office cubicle, a small room with several desks with walls set around them. She works in this room along with Ronald and his new girlfriend Marian, her friend Alyssa, and seven other shinigami with whom she is acquaintances with, but does not remember their names. She sits down at her computer desk and continues her work further, seeing as she has another to-die list to prepare. She is preparing Grell's to-die right now, and will be preparing William's to-die list with names and souls in just a few days. It's hard work, seeing as souls appear on the to-die list almost on the hour.

She glances in the mirror, where her own eyes are staring back at her. She sighs and looks back down, only to gasp and glance back up. She stares at her reflection with wide eyes. Her image in the mirror is smiling. She is not. It's not her smile; it's a crooked smile with one eye pushing up more than the other, and her thin eyebrows pull down to form a menacing grin. She is not the one smiling.

Elizabeth screams and throws her ink bottle at the mirror, which smashes into a million bits, taking the twisted reflection with it. Alyssa looks over in shock, peering over the edge of her office wall and into Elizabeth's.

"Lizzie? Are you all right? Lizzie?"

She is still trying to catch her breath, pointing with a trembling finger at the mirror. Something in her mind clicks, and she realizes how twisted and farfetched her story will sound to Alyssa. Even though they are best friends, she somehow feels like Alyssa doubts her too much.

"T-t-t-t-there was a-a-a spider on the m-mirror… it was h-h-h-huge…" She says, stuttering even more than usual because of the lie. However, Alyssa misinterprets it as fear.

Alyssa relaxes and shakes her head at Elizabeth. "Honestly, girl, you need to get your head together." Elizabeth's excuse has worked. Alyssa knows that Elizabeth is deathly scared of spiders, to the point that before she goes to sleep, she checks in the corners of her room to see if there are any spiders hanging on the walls, and if there are, she kills them instantly with her death scythe, a needle-thin sword with a blade the length of her forearm that looks almost like a fencing foil, only razor sharp and not bendy. Since the HR department and the dispatch work hand in hand, sometimes HR reapers are required to come onto field duty as dispatch reapers if said department is shorthanded. So they all have death scythes as well. She doesn't even need to attack the spiders. They die just by being in the presence of the death scythe.

Elizabeth rather dislikes the dispatch uniform. She is required to wear pants and a tight fitting dress shirt and suit jacket. It makes her self-conscious. She prefers to wear baggy clothing for a reason, to conceal the fact that she has a beautiful, thin hourglass figure that most women would sell their souls to have. She doesn't like it, however, and still manages to find a way to hide it. So every time she is sitting there on dispatch duty, she sits there and fiddles with the swirling pewter coloured designs on her death scythe hilt that make a cage around her hand, not meeting anyone's gaze.

Alyssa turns back around and goes back to work, leaving Elizabeth to clean up the broken shards of the mirror. She takes a deep breath and looks into one of the shards. Her own face is staring back at her, white with shock and fear. She relaxes. She has no idea what she just saw a few minutes ago, but it seems to be no longer there. Perhaps it was merely a figment of her imagination, conjured by her brain because of all the stress, anxiety and disappointment she's been feeling in the past little while. It's highly possible. So she pays no attention as she throws out the mirror shards into the trash.

However, the little pieces of reflective mirror still retain light in the trash can from the fluorescent lights overhead, twinkling as the light bounces off of them. Unknown to Elizabeth, her reflection still lingers in the mirror, though it should have been erased.

In the mirror, Elizabeth smiles, her eyes glowing brightly as she fades away into nothing, and leaving the mirror fragments to sparkle innocently in an environment where all should be calm.

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: feel free to skip until after the story. :3**

**Hey everyone, it's darkironprincess17~! I'm finally back! At long last! Hope you all had a lovely holiday, happy new years!**

**I have been incredibly busy as of late, and which is why I have retreated into the safety of my house and have not uploaded ANYTHING. My extreme apologies. ****Due to my incredible amount of piled up work (I'll have to work overtime yet again =-=) I will not be able to upload at my speedy-gonzales pace as I usually do. Either way, this story holds some importance to me as of the content, and I have been working really hard to find a way to incorporate this into the story. My usual readers will note that my writing style differs a bit here as well, another thing I wanted to try. The story might be a little boring at first, but please do read, I guarantee that you will not be disappointed. **

**~anyway, look forwards to the next chapter!**


	2. Lights out

Chapter two: Lights out

From that day, work went on as usual. Elizabeth works hard as usual, but now she pays less attention to her surroundings. She wonders nearly daily as to what she can do to make things better. He is now ignoring her entirely. She doesn't have much of a presence in the first place, but she finds it just cruel that she is now so beneath his appearance. She sighs much more often at this odd situation she finds herself in.

She just doesn't seem to understand why she continues to stick by her decision to like William. It's not exactly something she can control, yet it would be better for her to leave. He's just not interested in anyone right now. He's not even interested in anything besides his job. She just had to pick someone this difficult to get. Then again, it's not like anyone pays attention to her anyway. All her love goes to waste eventually.

"Hey, Lizzie, cheer up." Alyssa walks up behind her and pulls on a braid. Lizzie looks up and smiles gently at her friend.

"S-s-shouldn't you be working?"

"I'm on my break" She sticks her tongue out. No matter what, Alyssa is always a happy girl. She always radiates this happiness that can make anyone happy just by being around her. She smiles with such brightness, and her yellow green eyes seem to sparkle behind her rounded green lenses. Her acid green glasses make it possible for anyone to recognize her from no matter how far away. Alyssa has a very particular style, nearly gothic, but it works for her. Her superiors frequently beat down on her for wearing crosses and bows and things that simply aren't work related. But they have stopped.

"Ah. I guess it's time for me to g-go back to work, right?"

"Yeah, it is. You need to start being happier. I'm coming over tonight, so stop giving me that frown." She pushes the corner of Elizabeth's mouth with her fingers. She giggles and moves away.

"Ok, ok, point proven. I-I'll see you at seven, right?"

"Yeah! See you, Lizzie!" Alyssa dances away. Elizabeth smiles as she watches her best friend leave. She thinks about how nice it is to have a friend like Alyssa. She doesn't know what she would have done without her. Elizabeth gently makes her way to her desk and slides in to work as quickly as possible. She finishes off Grell's to-die list and sends it back, thankful she doesn't have to approach him.

Elizabeth has only met Grell a couple of times, and she is terrified of him. He doesn't like her, and looks down on her a lot. He hasn't outwardly threatened her or anything, but it's clear in his eyes that if he catches her in his sight, she'd better steer clear of him, which she gladly does. His pointy teeth scare her to death, and the way he wears red all the time just reminds her of a stop sign with its blaring loud colours.

She doesn't like red. She doesn't like flashy colours in general. Her favourite colour is a nice shade of pastel purple that reminds her of her childhood home. Though she never says anything about it, she remembers her human life so clearly to the point of it being scary, despite it being hundreds and hundreds of years ago. She died at ten years old from heart failure, and grew up as a shinigami child from then. It didn't really help that her parents had tried to make her wear a corset with her already weak heart. They were long dead, of course, along with all of her other human friends. She could still remember what they looked like.

As hours tick by, it's finally time for Elizabeth to go home. She picks Alyssa up and they walk to her house together, chatting happily all the while. Eventually, they walk up to a small house that's neatly cared for. Every shinigami is automatically given a house at seventeen, which is when they are required to start living on their own. Elizabeth opens the door to let Alyssa inside. She walks in, her ginger hair flowing gracefully behind her in the wind.

Elizabeth's house is very neat, and consists of lightly coloured things. If one wasn't aware of who lived here, one would assume an old lady, or a woman in her forties who thinks that fashion and loud things are not for her. Everything is so neat and perfect, a reflection on Elizabeth's personality.

Alyssa walks straight over into Elizabeth's room, and starts picking over all the makeup she's brought with her.

"What are you doing, Alyssa?" Elizabeth asks as Alyssa empties all the makeup on the counter. Now that she's away from the public eye, Elizabeth's stutter has almost disappeared.

"Remember the promise you made to me? The next time that I come over, I give you a makeover. And if you like how you look, you go out and buy all the makeup you want. Tomorrow's a Sunday, so you have a day off."

Elizabeth nods. Now that the two women are away from the crowd, one can really tell the differences between the two best friends. Alyssa's voice is high, sharp and perky, and very loud. Elizabeth's voice is rather low for a girl's, and very soft and sweet, like she's speaking through a cloth. But even though she still speaks barely above a whisper, when she's not nervous, her voice still somehow carries and is heard perfectly clearly.

"So, what do you want me to do first?"

Alyssa laughs. "You sound like I'm going to torture you. Let's start with your hair."

Elizabeth sits in front of Alyssa and un-braids her hair.

"What are you going to do to it?"

"I won't do anything yet. Even if you let your hair down, it looks really nice. It's blue…" She adds, bemusedly. "I never noticed it was blue. It was never this blue…"

"My hair is black, Alyssa." Elizabeth says, raising an eyebrow.

"It's a really pretty shade of black." She clarifies. "The highlights in your hair are blue. Don't argue with me, I see your hair better than you will."

Alyssa does Elizabeth's hair, nails and makeup, and gives her a ridiculous Lolita outfit of hers to try on. Elizabeth goes into the bathroom and looks at her reflection after Alyssa proclaims her done. She frowns. She looks too much like a doll. Alyssa has put far too much makeup on her, and her hair does not look good when it's tied up like it is. Her pink Lolita outfit doesn't do much to help that picture. Is she being made fun of?

Elizabeth stares into the mirror in anger. She hates it. She hates this outfit, all this stupid makeup she will never wear, and her hair that looks like a marie-Antoinette wig dipped in black ink. A smaller part of her is surprised, seeing as Elizabeth is a very calm girl. She has never gotten angry at anyone, or anything. The greater part of her is too insulted to feel anything else. However, she keeps her head, and realizes that it might be the end of their friendship if she says anything to Alyssa about how much she hates this.

She walks out of the bathroom with a smile and twirls.

"How do I look?" She asks. Alyssa laughs and claps her hands.

"Beautiful! Now" She grabs Elizabeth's wrist. "Let's go outside and show you to everyone!"

"No!" Elizabeth wrenches her hand out of Alyssa's grasp. She realizes that she just said it rather loudly and rather out of character. "I'm sorry, Alyssa. You know h-how shy I am… I-I'm just not ready to leave the house like this just yet. I-it's not that I don't love it. I just c-can't be seen like this just yet."

Alyssa nods. "I should have figured as much." She sighs. "It's a start, though. I'm glad you like it." She smiles.

Elizabeth smiles back. For the next little while, she and Alyssa talk, but things aren't exactly the same between them yet. She can tell Alyssa is a bit upset at her, and that she wants to leave sooner to be able to get over the shock. Elizabeth has never raised her voice at anyone, let alone her best-and only true friend. They spend a few more hours together, with Elizabeth trying to make Alyssa laugh. It works somewhat, and Alyssa leaves quite cheerier than she was before.

Elizabeth walks back into the bathroom and wipes off all her makeup as fast as she can, and puts her hair back into the two braids. She puts her nightgown on and sighs. Finally… she stares at the horrible pink outfit. She'll have to give it back to Alyssa as soon as possible so that it doesn't hurt her eyes any more than it already does.

She moves towards her floor length mirror in her room and sighs. She inspects her reflection and shakes her head.

"Of course Alyssa tried to help me." She says to herself. "There is no one in their right mind who would take me as I am now…"

A sudden hissing noise can be heard as the lights in Elizabeth's house go out. The temperature drops slightly as an echoing voice whispers in her ear

"All that can be changed, Lizzie darling."


	3. The Lady Devil

Chapter 3: The Lady Devil

A cold mist steals through the room, making the temperature plummet quickly. Soft, hissing laughter comes from nowhere as the voice whispers gently;

"All that can be changed, Lizzie darling."

The reflection in the mirror blurs once again until Elizabeth's frightened face is replaced with a cold, disdainful smirk that looks incredibly out of place on her features. The image morphs again. A flash of light makes Elizabeth fall backwards onto the floor. Propping herself up on her hands, she sees that her reflection is still standing. And yet, it's not her reflection anymore.

The familiar woman in the mirror is incredibly gorgeous. Her raven black hair is lustrous and silky, and flows down past her waist in thick, elegant curls. It billows around her pale face, and her eyes glow behind her black square glasses. It's Elizabeth. Only she looks so different. Instead of wearing the same nightgown, the mirror version of Elizabeth is wearing the traditional work outfit of a shinigami, and she wears it well. High heeled boots with high black socks, an incredibly short miniskirt and a blouse that's partially open.

The dark version of Elizabeth smiles gently.

"Come now, darling. Pick yourself up off the floor. I'm not going to hurt you." Her voice is Elizabeth's, only darker, and more alluring, and without the annoying stutter. It's still the same low and husky voice, but now it has some sort of power to it, a voice that cannot be ignored.

Elizabeth slowly lifts herself off the floor, trembling so much that her knees knock together and her teeth chatter.

"W-w-who are you?" She squeaks, her voice almost an octave higher out of fear.

"Silly girl, isn't it obvious? I'm you." The reflection smiles, and leans her hand on the other side of the mirror.

"You-you…I…what…?"

The other Elizabeth laughs gently and twirls. "Don't you like what you see, Lizzie? Aren't I beautiful?"

"Y-yes… You're the p-prettiest g-girl I've ever seen."

"Darling, I'm more than just a girl. I'm better than any woman alive." She leans forwards in the mirror, almost like she's going to break through the glass and come into her room. But it looks like she's just confined in the recesses of the mirror. But Elizabeth doesn't seem to know this. The dark Elizabeth sighs and shakes her head. "I don't suppose you know why I'm here, do you?"

"N-n-no…"

"I came here, Lizzie, to give you the future you could have. Everywhere there's a mirror, I'm there, and I see you. I've seen you for your whole life. I've seen you struggle as you do. I want to change that. Look at yourself." The dark Elizabeth gestures through the mirror. "You're such a hardworking girl, and you deserve the best. But the way you are now, you'll never get him."

"Y-you know about W-William?"

"What wouldn't I know about myself, darling?" She asks, raising her eyebrows. "You could be so much more than you are. You could get him in the blink of an eye. He's perfect for you. You just need him to look at you. And I can help you do that. Wouldn't looking like this help you a lot, darling? You have everything you need for men to come falling at your feet. Yet you don't use them. Wouldn't you like to try?"

"Y-yes… but…"

"What's the matter?"

"I-it's not enough to j-just look nice… H-he doesn't p-pay attention to other w-women…"

"Ah. But here's the thing." The room gets even darker somehow, the shadows on the walls being more pronounced. Dark Elizabeth's eyes glow even brighter as she smiles, her canine teeth strangely elongated.

"I have a special power. Any man who looks into my eyes will fall instantly in love with me. Instantly, hopelessly in love, without a chance of escaping me. It borders almost on obsessive love. I become everything they think and dream about, and they all try their hardest to win my heart. Wouldn't that ability be nice here?" She asks, flicking some hair away from her face.

Elizabeth thinks this over. Any man at all. She only wants one, and only one. But once she has this power, why stop at one? She can finally get back at all the women who hurt her, teased her and made fun of her. She could get rid of their boyfriends, make them break up with those girls in the most brutal, horrid ways, and come to join her. That would be the ultimate revenge.

Almost as if she knows what she's thinking, the dark Elizabeth adds; "Oh, and it works on an infinite number of men at a time." Her smirk widens, knowing her prey's caught the bait. "So what do you say? Interesting offer, no?"

"Yes… yes…" Elizabeth's forehead creases.

"Is there still something you're not sure about, darling?"

"W-w-what do I need to give you in return?"

"Why do you think I'd need something in return?" She laughs. "You're me. All I want is for you to be happy. Then I am equally happy. Do you see? I have a very nice deal for you. I am you, but I am a different side of you who never got to see life. You see, when a human dies, if they are destined to become a shinigami, part of their soul dies and goes to either heaven or hell anyway." Her face falls. "I was that part of you. I was supposed to go to heaven… but…"

"W-what happened to you?"

"I was tricked." She says, looking down. "Even to this day, I'm not exactly sure what happened. Trickster demons… I think. They confused me… and I fell into hell. I didn't want to. It was torture. I still don't have a body. I had to spend _centuries_ in that place when I shouldn't have been, looking for a way out. And now I'm here. So I have the teeniest favour to ask of you.

"I will give you my powers. All of them, yours to use with no strings attached. You get my beauty and my powers, and my confidence, too, something you have very little of, no? I'll give you this one chance. You will live the rest of your life as a shinigami happily. But once you die, I get your body. You'll obviously go to heaven, and your body will be completely vacant anyway. I've never had a body before. I'll go before it has a chance to decay. I want a chance to live. Do you think you can do this for me?"

"That's all?"

"Yes… think about it. You won't need your body after you die. Please? For me?"

Elizabeth nods, almost as if hypnotized. She's been entirely won over. The dark demon girl holds out her hand. The mirror ripples, and her black gloved hand morphs into existence, reaching through the depths of the mirror and reality.

"Join with me… Lizzie. No, Elizabeth. Lizzie is too childish for the strong woman you will become. Throw away your former life of pain and ridicule. Join with me and become the envy of everyone else. Join with me… and be happy with the one you love."

With those last words, Elizabeth's eyes glaze over and harden behind her glasses. She takes a step forward, and another, and another. With every step, her posture improves, her face sharpens and she gains confidence. She reaches out to take the demon's hand.

"Yes. Let's join together."

**Author's note: oh god, this was a difficult chapter to write. Hey everyone, it's darkironprincess17 here! **

**Man, I really struggled here. This was incredibly difficult for me to write, seeing as it's an unusually dark atmosphere for my stories. Somehow I like the difficulty though. Sorry this chapter took so long. I've forgotten how much responsibility it is to keep a story going. I really need to get back into the loop. **

**Anyway, thank you to those who have been reviewing. Those reviews are what keeps me writing, really. So thank you and look forwards to the next chapter!**


	4. Reformation

Chapter 4: Reformation

"Yes. Let's join together." Elizabeth's face is set, her decision made.

"Excellent. Great choice, Elizabeth dear."

The wind fills the room as the mirror shatters into a million fragments.

X-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-X

Waking in the morning feels almost unreal to Elizabeth the next day. She groans quietly and rolls over in her comfy lavender covers, pulling them over her head to avoid the sunlight. She wants to sleep in longer, but once she's awake, she cannot fall back asleep. So she just lies in bed for a little longer, cherishing the warm sleepy moments.

Very soon, memories of the previous night begin to creep back into her mind. She blinks. It seemed so unreal… had it all been a dream? It sure seemed like it. She stretches and and looks around. Surely enough, the mirror fragments are still there from last night. Her hand catches her eye as she makes a move to get up.

There used to be a thin scar along her left hand, where she had accidentally gotten cut by a death scythe. It wasn't a major cut, but it sure had taken a while to heal. She looks at her left hand now. There is nothing. The skin is perfect and unblemished, and seems to emit a pearly glow. Her nails are rounded and neatly filed, though she hasn't done anything to them, and are rather long now. She could probably cut someone with them if she wanted to. They're also a bit darker than normal, more lavender than pink. She pays no attention to it, however, jumping up out of her bed.

No sooner has she remembered what happened, she wonders instantly how she looks today, with her new powers. She runs into the bathroom and looks at her mirror. The dark version of Elizabeth is not there, and she knows that what she sees is who she is. She's more like herself than she would have thought, but it's not a bad thing. She's more beautiful than she could have imagined.

Her hair seems even more blue now than before, reminding her of dark sapphires, and is very silky and shiny. It seems to curl perfectly and effortlessly without needing anything done to it, though she's just woken up and hasn't even brushed it yet. Her eyes are larger, and darker, framed by thick lashes that give off a smouldering gaze. Her features are more pronounced now, and less childish. Her skin is paler than before, but her freckles have all disappeared, making it uniform and luminous.

Elizabeth raises her hand and adjusts her hair. Even a nonchalant gesture such as this looks impossibly attractive. It's then that she notices that there is a new addition to her left hand. It's a small black curling mark, just two thin spirals on the inside of her wrist that look almost flowery. The tattoo-like mark is pure, burning black. It shines with purple light for just a moment as dark Elizabeth's voice floods into her mind.

_Yes... This is the symbol that marks you as The Lady of Darkness, or Miss Venomania, either one. This is your identity, what proves you to rule over everyone else, and is a symbol of your new powers. _

Elizabeth looks at it and smiles, satisfied. It's perfect. She wants to go test out her powers, however it's a sunday, and there will be no one at work, no one to surprise with her new appearance. What to do...

"Hey...um... you still there?" She asks. "It feels impossibly weird to talk to myself."

_Yes, I'm still here. I can't read your thoughts unfortunately, so this is the way we'll have to communicate. I can talk to you in public, but you can't say much back. No one else can hear my voice._

"Ok... this is a bit of a complication. But I'm sure we'll work it out somehow. It's not that bad. So what should I do first?"

_First thing's first, you need to throw out everything you have in your closet, and buy new things. This will not do. Every article of clothing you own is designed to hide your beauty, not enhance it. That needs to change. _

"Agreed." Elizabeth walks back over to her closet and inspects her things. Just as the dark girl had said, there was nothing in her wardrobe that she could wear. She throws everything onto her bed and inspects it. She has to go outside, but she doesn't want to run into anyone she knows, because she wants it to be a surprise for everyone at once.

"This is a problem..."

_To say the least. _Dark Elizabeth says teasingly.

"Thanks a bunch. I don't want anyone to recognize me at work tomorrow..."

_You can change your appearance. Don't you have a brown wig somewhere?_

"Yeah, but it's Alyssa's, one I never returned."

_Wear it, and i'll keep a lookout for Alyssa to make sure she doesn't see you. Now, about your outfit..._

In the end, Elizabeth takes her dispatch uniform blouse and pants, seeing as both are the only form fitting thing that she will keep. She omits her glasses, though technically she's never supposed to take them off, But she's not on duty, and this is something she considers a necessity for herself. This brings her to another realization. Her vision is perfect. Two days ago, she'd gone to sleep with the corners of her room already blurring out. But now everything is perfectly clear, even the minute script of the newspaper that has fallen off her desk.

She frowns as she puts her hair into a bun and pulls the wig over it. She draws on her missing freckles with a neat hand, using the makeup that Alyssa has left behind. She puts on a black trench coat and looks at herself. She doesn't look much like her new self, but she doesn't look much like her old self either, which is good.

"Is there any way to turn this power thing off? I don't want people falling for me today while I'm out..."

_Don't worry. It's a voluntary thing, to use that power. If you don't want to catch attention, you will go as unnoticed as your former self._

Dark Elizabeth puts in another subtle insult, to remind her how lucky she is that they joined together. Elizabeth nods, and heads out the door. Today, she is playing a meek, quiet woman. So she tries to mirror the way she used to walk. It's uncomfortable again. She's got no idea whatsoever how she used to walk this way. She wants to walk with her head high, preferably in heels, tall and proud. But instead she takes small, meek strides, head bowed slightly. It's awkward, to say the least.

She makes her way to the store. It's raining out today, a light drizzle. She's got more of an excuse to hide under her umbrella now. There are few people outside today, something that's good for her. She leaps lightly over puddles as she walks. It would look ridiculous on anyone else, but seeing as her new powers are in effect, it gives the impression of a high class woman, not wishing to ruin her shoes.

Once she walks into the center of town, things get a bit busier. The town square is pretty much the most urban place of the shinigami world. There is nothing in the world that uses up electricity or gas. Everything runs on some sort of dark energy only found in the shinigami world. Elizabeth can't remember it's name. Either way, it's not important. The shinigami world is made of two cities, and in each city there are several districts. District one of her city is this urban place. Few people live here, save for shopkeepers and other people that decided not to become shinigami, or failed their training.

One way or another, there are a lot of stores to visit. Further back are the places of entertainment, like movies and restaurants. She's never been here, but she intends to be soon.

_Keep it in mind. _Dark Elizabeth says. _Soon you'll have more dates than you know what to do with, so think of where you want to go, and with whom._

"But I can't have more than one date at the same time" She whispers, hiding her face so she doesn't look insane.

_You can have as many as you wish, Elizabeth. They will be so obsessed with you that they'll be grateful even to have a bit of your time dedicated to them. They won't care about anyone else. _

"Hmm..."

She walks into one of the clothing stores and closes her umbrella. She starts carefully going over clothes.

"Now... what should I pick?" It's just a simple question. One would think she was simply saying it for no reason. People do that sometimes.

_Hmm... definitely not what you're holding. Put it down._

She does. She's not looking for any colour specifically, because she knows she'll wear anything well now. But something pulls her more towards purple than any other colour. It's always been her favourite colour, but now she goes for vibrant and darker shades of purple instead of unassuming lavender.

She ends up buying ten shopping bags full of clothes. Being a shinigami, it's not so bad, but it's still a handful to carry back four miles just walking. She stands unassumingly at the cash register, waiting to pay. She wonders what she can do about this.

_Why don't you test out your powers? Get a guy to carry your things for you._ Dark Elizabeth says. _I know you want to test out your powers. All you need to do is meet his eyes to activate it._

Elizabeth gives a quick nod, pays for her things and leaves, walking down the street. She takes off her brown wig and smoothes her regular hair back into place. She pauses as she tucks the wig into her purse and looks around for a suitable guy. Her eyes fall on a tall guy with messy, brown hair and thick, square black glasses that remind her a bit of William.

_Ok. Good. That's your target. Now, just look at him until he looks back at you. _

But the man doesn't look at her. She stares at him in frustration, but he seems preoccupied with his work. Her mark burns black, a warm heat on her wrist that glows right through her shirt and jacket. She fixes her gaze on him again, anger stirring up inside her.

_Look at me... Look at me._ She commands in her mind.

He looks, almost as if some invisible force is pushing his head up to make him look at her. He looks into her eyes, and blinks rapidly as his eyes flash purple faster than anyone would have noticed. He spreads his arms out slightly, like he's about to fall over, but regains his bearings and walks over to her.

"Excuse me, Miss. You look like you're having some trouble. Would it be all right if I helped?"

"Oh, yes, that would be lovely."

He promptly picks up a couple bags, and looks up at her wearing a kind and friendly smile, his eyes rapt with attention. Elizabeth is slightly shocked. She's never recieved this kind of attention from a man before, and truly, it is a very nice feeling to be held in someone's regard.

"So, what's a beautiful lady like yourself doing here without someone to help? It's not very good for you to carry all this weight around." He says as they set off.

"Oh, I just moved into a different house" She lies smoothly. It's got just the right ring of truth to it that no one would doubt her. "I purchased all my furniture a while ago, but unfortunately they haven't brought my things back. I need something to wear during the time it takes them to bring my old things. My work outfit on it's own simply won't do."

"Indeed" He agrees. "It's obvious by father's glasses that you're a licensed Grim Reaper. Which department do you work in?"

"The Human Ressources department." She says. "I work at the dispatch on the side every now and then as well."

"You must be an excellent shinigami then" He says, looking into her eyes with an almost wondering expression. It's clear that he cannot look away.

"Oh, not at all." She waves a dismissing hand, elated at how easy this is. "I just work hard. And you? Which department do you work in?"

"I just got transferred into the dispatch. Maybe we'll work together sometime." He says, and then blinks like he's forgotten something. "Oh, how rude of me. I haven't introduced myself yet. I'm Tyler Birch, by the way. And you are?"

"Elizabeth. Elizabeth May."

"A pleasure, Miss May. It's a rather lovely name."

"Why thank you." She smiles as they exit the first district and start making their way back to her small house. As a side note, Elizabeth makes note to really purchase a new house afterwards. She's getting sick of her quiet home. Her high paying job salary should make that possible in a few weeks. "You know, I really appreciate your kindness, Tyler. Not many people would have paused to help me."

"It's nothing at all, Miss." A light blush comes over Tyler's face. _What a nice guy._ Elizabeth thinks. _I made a good choice._

They finally reach her house, and he holds all of her things to allow her to open the door.

"Thank you once again for all your help, Tyler."

"It was no trouble, really." He smiles. _I know. _She thinks. _You would have helped me destroy the world had I asked you to do so._ She smiles back, however. She really likes this nice young man. She took a look at him. He was smiling so happily, like he didn't know anything was wrong. She barely even had to use any of her powers anyway.

"Say, Miss May..."

"Please, call me Elizabeth." She says.

"Elizabeth. Would it be all right if we met up sometime?" He looks nervous. But she smiles again.

"It would." She acknowledges. She can tell he's listening intently to every word she says. "I'll see you tomorrow at work anyway. Maybe at lunch we can figure something out."

"That sounds great. Goodbye, Elizabeth."

"Goodbye, Tyler."

She closes the door and watches him leave with a smile. He seems to be very happy, a spring in his new step. Once she is alone, a sudden darkness comes over the room, and a noise like feathers brushing together makes her turn. Dark Elizabeth stands behind her.

_See, darling, what did I tell you?_ She says, her voice feathery and sing song. She seems happy. _Every man you ever see and think is suitable for you, you can have him in the blink of an eye. Wasn't this the trade of the century? _

Elizabeth barely hears her, however. She stares with a brand new fascination at her dark mark, the thing that has given her power, and has allowed her to rise up over everyone else and exact her revenge as she pleases.

"Yes... It is..." She agrees faintly.

**HEYYYY EVERYBODY! So damn sorry it's taken me so long to update. I felt bad, so here's a super long chapter. It's darkironprincess17 once again (in case you couldn't tell... XD). As for those of you who were wanting to know if I got my application fixed, I did not. The new program I'm using for now is wordpad, which is not the best for formatting. I'll stil try to update as fast as I can, however it might be difficult for me with my new schedule and all...**

**But I still promise at least once a week updates. If I don't update for a while, I'll usually post up a note if I end up doing something that ruins my story schedule.**

**~~As usual, thank you so much to everyone who's been reviewing, your reviews are what keeps the story going! **

**P.S; I wanted to ask for some reader feedback lately; on the subject of Elizabeth and the story, what are you here to see more of?**

**-romance**

**-fight scenes**

**Or a bit of both? **

**I'd like to know to see how much more content of the two I'll regulate in this story. Anyway, look forwards to the next chapter! :3**


	5. New

Chapter five:

The next day, Elizabeth wakes up bright and early. Excitement for today has made it impossible to sleep. She only went to sleep four hours ago, and yet has woken up feeling great, and looking even better. But she'd look like a million bucks even on her worst day. She shoots up out of bed, throwing off the covers and walks to the bathroom.

She gets dressed and applies her makeup with a neat hand, even though her face is beautiful enough without it. She just goes with a bit of silvery eyeshadow. Anything else would just be overdoing it. Her lashes are so long already, and they create any bit of darkness that eyeliner would have done. She brushes her bangs to the side so that they sweep gracefully in a waterfall down the left side of her face, curling under her chin.

Today is the day that she shows everyone who she's become, and is going to get ready for the new respect she deserves. She's decided that she won't go straight for William right away. He is the kind of man who would try his hardest to resist her magic. And if she did the whole dose all in one, it might scar him mentally. And that was the last thing she wanted, to hurt him at all.

Her power doesn't wear away unless she commands it to vanish, so she can layer on any amount of love spells she wants. She's counting on this trick to slowly, but surely, make William fall in love with her. That's the excitement that drives her forwards. To know that finally, her love will not go unnoticed, and unrequited. And very soon... she'll finally, finally be happy.

She puts on the new work skirt she's picked out. It's a stiff, navy blue miniskirt that contours her hips nicely. She doesn't want it to flare out at all, so it's not pleated like her old one was, and stretches in a uniform manner. She wears a dress shirt that finally fits her, with the first two buttons undone, and the sleeves rolled up. It's tucked neatly into her skirt to have a professional look. Darkened tights, sapphire high heels and silver hoop earrings complete the outfit.

She looks over her new self in the mirror. Elizabeth looks absolutely unrecognizable, nothing like her old self was at all. Even the way she stands is different. She doesn't slouch anymore, her shoulders aren't bent in anymore. Her chin is up, and she doesn't feel like a magnet is pulling her eyes down to the floor anymore. She finally considers herself to be an equal to everyone else.

She picks up a matching blue bag that holds all of her paperwork and slings it over her shoulders. She puts on her work glasses, which make her look even nicer than before and shrugs on a coat before heading out the door.

It's a crisp October morning outside today. There isn't a single cloud in the sky. The puddles of rain have dried up overnight, and so Elizabeth walks without fear of getting her shoes wet. It feels like a whole new world to her, now that she's changed. The world is nicer, the colours are brighter. She notices a little flower bush full of bluebells, which had been recently planted, but she hadn't noticed it until today. She smiles. It's a warming sight.

It's a little while to walk to the shinigami library of Cinematic Records, but the shinigami world isn't a big place. There is really no need for any kind of transportation, especially not when the dimension's occupants are all gifted with incredible speed and endurance. So she easily makes the two mile walk within ten minutes.

Today she is on time for work on the dot, not early nor late. She hesitates as she rests her hand on the huge double doors of the library. She's not sure what people will make of her, but it's time to find out. The heavy doors push open with a flick of her wrist. She walks into the library, closing the doors gently behind her so they don't slam.

The reception area is almost empty, except for a few shinigami. Marian is amongst them, along with two other shinigami girls, two of whom were incredibly mean to her. Marian herself isn't bad. She makes the highest effort possible to treat everyone equally. Elizabeth doesn't mind her as much as she minds all the others.

Her high heels make soft clicking noises as she makes her way to the desk. The girl's conversations stop as they turn their heads to look at Elizabeth as she passes. She glances in their direction, and they look away quickly.

"Who is that?"

"I've never seen her before, but she's really pretty."

"Gosh, I wish I had hair like that. She looks like a supermodel."

The hushed whispers make Elizabeth even more confident than ever as she strides up to the front desk, taking her purse off her shoulder. The receptionist looks up pleasantly, and even her professional manner drops for a minute as she gawks in shock at Elizabeth. She blinks promptly, smiling.

"Hello, Miss. How may I help you today? Would you happen to be new here?"

Elizabeth laughs. "No, Mindy. It's me, Elizabeth."

The name doesn't seem to ring with the receptionist. "Elizabeth...? Which Elizabeth?"

"Elizabeth May. We talked on Friday. Or have you forgotten already?" She raises a perfect eyebrow.

Mindy's jaw drops.

"Y-you're _that_ Elizabeth? No way... what happened to you?"

"You speak of it like it's a bad thing." Elizabeth flicks a strand of sapphire black hair behind her ear.

"N-not at all, Lady May." Elizabeth notes, with a hint of amusement, that Mindy the receptionist now has a stutter from shock. It'll go away, but it seems like the reverse of what happened on Friday, when Elizabeth still stuttered on every other word. "What can I do to help you today, Milady?" She asks.

"Papers, always papers." Elizabeth sighs as she rummages around in her seemingly bottomless bag for her assignments. "Grell Sutcliffe's to-die list has been finished as Senior Evans has asked, as well as the time graphs that were requested on Friday."

"I'll take the graphs from you, but I'm afraid you'll have to deliver Mr. Sutcliffe's to-die list to him personally."

Elizabeth hides her fear expertly as she takes back the to-die list, careful not to scratch the cover with her long nails. She has always been terrified of Grell. Her new confidence has not changed that in the slightest. She nods and slips the to-die list into her purse.

"That would be all, then. Thank you, Mindy." Elizabeth is keenly aware that the group of shinigami girls are listening intently to their conversation. Incredibly rude, in her opinion.

"Have a nice day, Lady May." Mindy calls as Elizabeth walks away. She waves gently. She figures that Grell will not want to be kept waiting for his to-die list, and the more annoyed he gets, the worse it will be for her.

Dark Elizabeth senses her worry and sighs. _You know what to do if he worries you that much._

Elizabeth drops her purse in shock. "Really?" It would normally be taken as an exclamation of frustration, but it's really in question to the dark girl occupying a space in her mind.

_Yes. As odd a man as he might be, he _is_ a man. He's an interesting case, that one. But no matter how eccentric-ahem-he might be, his gender is still male. Therefore your magic will still work on him. Trust me, try it. He's the one type where you only need to look him in the eyes once. And he'll be yours forever. _

She raises an eyebrow. She has no idea if she wants him to even be hers. She hasn't really talked to him all that much, but he's always treated her like a piece of trash. But then again... a light clicks in her head. Wouldn't that be the perfect way to gauge her power strength? Getting someone who hates her to be completely in love with her? And if she so wished, he wouldn't bother William again, giving her another chance to get him.

She pauses at the door and knocks.

"Come in" The strangely musical voice says. He's got this weird way of talking where it's almost a drawling accent, but darker somehow, and a lot more flamboyant.

She opens the door and walks into his office. Grell is, once again, declining his work, leaning back on his office chair, his feet up on the desk. A half empty mug of coffee sits beside his desk, and a few entirely empty ones as well.

"Mr. Sutcliff, I've finished your to-die list as you requested."

His upper lip curls, giving her a better view of his sharpened teeth. "Oh, Elizabeth, right?" He turns to face her incredibly quickly, almost kicking the desk. "What took you so long to get it done?" He demands, hitting his fist on the table. "A lady needs to have-"

Elizabeth's eyes flash purple, her eyes narrowing. Grell breaks off, and his eyes widen as they flash the same purple behind the red framed glasses. He blinks rapidly, and almost falls off his chair.

"Excuse me, Mr. Sutcliff, but if you wish to do all that work to prepare your to-die list, go right ahead." She says, slamming the book down on the table. She has both hands on her hips and is staring accusingly at him. "You don't seem to understand what work actually is, and how much trouble this took me. Sorry if I don't want this kind of reception again."

He's still staring at her with this odd expression on his face. "What?" She demands. "Why are you staring at me? Do you have something to say?"

He blinks again. "You...you... you've changed...so much. Lizzie...?" His eyes flicker between regular yellow-green and electric purple. Elizabeth fights against the urge to take a step backwards. _My god... have I done something wrong?_ She thinks. _That shouldn't happen... what's the matter with him?_ She has no idea how to reverse the spell once she casts it. She tries to search for Dark Elizabeth in her mind, but can't find her.

He lunges at her.


	6. Surprise

Chapter 6: surprise

He blinks again. "You...you... you've changed...so much. Lizzie...?" His eyes flicker between regular yellow-green and electric purple. Elizabeth fights against the urge to take a step backwards. _My god... have I done something wrong?_ She thinks. _That shouldn't happen... what's the matter with him?_ She has no idea how to reverse the spell once she casts it. She tries to search for Dark Elizabeth in her mind, but can't find her.

He lunges at her, his eyes glowing bright purple.

She freaks out about fifty times over before realizing that he hadn't lunged at her at all, just stood up and had tackle-hugged her. She calms down slightly, knowing that he's not going to attack her. Her fear of Grell has really reached an all-time high. He smells nice, like cinnamon. And he's talking so fast that she can hardly understand him.

"Oh my gosh, Lizzie darling, I'm so sorry! I didn't realize it was you! Of course I'm super super grateful for the work and everything, and you look so gorgeous now! Just like the beautiful young lady you are!" He lets go of her with a huge smile on his face. "Your hair is so amazing, though it could be longer, but it's bright blue! It's beautiful now, I never noticed it was this colour! And your eyes are so dark and pretty, just look at that gaze, stunning darling, just stunning..."

He continues gushing for about twenty minutes. Elizabeth is relieved that everything went this smoothly, no matter the fact that it gave her a heart attack. He doesn't sound any more in love with her than he would with William or his 'Sebastian darling', whoever that was. This Sebastian person had disappeared a few years ago, but Grell still keeps looking for him.

Grell grabs one of her black gloved hands in his two and leads her over to his desk.

"Come on, we can have some coffee and you can tell me everything I've missed this week, darling." He says with a smile.

"I'd love to, Mr. Sutcliff, but I really need to get back to work." She says. "I've got Mr. Spears' to-die list to work on next, and you know how that's going to be difficult. I wouldn't want anyone to catch me slacking off."

"Oh, then you'd best get going. After all" He winks. "We wouldn't want people to think we're up to something."

She nods and smiles as she walks out the door. "Another time, Mr. Sutcliff."

"I'll hold you to that, darling." He calls after her as she closes the door. As soon as the office door is shut, she walks a little and then leans back against the wall, her head down, letting out a huge sigh. That wasn't nearly as bad as she thought it would have been, but it had still clearly been an ordeal for her. At least Grell doesn't hate her anymore. Quite the opposite, with time, but it's an improvement as it is.

Stepping into her office room, she feels relieved to have the deal over, and thinks she can now relax. But now she's got more problems, and an unpleasant surprise as she drops her bag down at her desk. Not only does she have ten tons of overtime work to finish, plus William's to-die list, Alyssa doesn't even greet her, or lift her head to see she's there, for that matter.

_So she's not even going to say hi? Some friend._ Dark Elizabeth says.

"Shut up" She whispers so quietly only Dark Elizabeth could hear. _Alyssa is a great friend._ She thinks. _She's just a bit annoyed at me, or has a lot of work on her hands._

Elizabeth walks over and puts an apple down on Alyssa's desk as she passes.

"Oh, thanks Lizzie." Alyssa says, still not raising her head.

"Yes, it's so nice to see you, I'm so happy you said hi." Elizabeth says jokingly.

Alyssa laughs. "Ok, ok, you got me." She lifts up her head. "Hey, where did your stutter...go?" Her eyes widen as she looks at Elizabeth. She blinks several times, and looks around the room. She turns to Elizabeth. "Hey, did you see where Lizzie went? Small girl, about this tall-" She gestures with her hand. "-hair's black, in two braids, long skirt... what?"

Elizabeth's eyebrows are in danger of disappearing past her hairline. She tilts her head. "Alyssa."

"What?"

"Alyssa." She taps her long purple nail on Alyssa's desk and points to herself. "Are you really serious?" When Alyssa still looks confused, she lets out a sigh of exasperation. "My god, Ally, it's me!"

It takes a few seconds for the words to register. She looks at her old friend, her eyes getting wider every second. She stares at Elizabeth, taking in everything that's new, from the sapphire hair to the long painted nails to the high heels and tight outfit that earlier, she would have never been caught dead in. It takes her a little while to find her voice again. "My god... Elizabeth?"

"Yes, Ally. Now close your mouth, you look daft."

She snaps it shut, looking really upset. "What... what happened to you?"

"What do you mean?" She asks as she spins around, like Dark Elizabeth did on the first night. "I decided you were right about the whole shyness thing, so I decided to do something about it. And you were right. Aren't I beautiful now?"

"Yes, but..."

"But what? Everything's great now. If you want, we can go out after work next week, and I'll wear that beautiful pink dress you gave me." Elizabeth offers with a smile. "It'll be my treat."

"I... I guess..." She says. Her expression is bemused and upset at the same time. Elizabeth doesn't understand what the problem is. Alyssa wanted this herself.

"So, are you leaving for lunch, or what?"

"Yeah... but I didn't bring anything..."

"How did I know?" Elizabeth asks with a smirk as she tosses a small brown paper bag for her. Alyssa is in such a daze that she almost misses it, despite being the fastest and having the quickest reflexes of any of the shinigami, male or female. She nods her thanks, and stares, frowning at the bag.

"Hey." Elizabeth reaches out to give Alyssa a casual hug. She even smells different, like spices, and dark flowers. "Don't worry about it. Everything's cool. I might look really different, but I'm still me. Don't forget that, ok? I'm still here. Don't worry so much, ok?"

"Ok..."

"Ok. Go for lunch and relax a bit." She pokes her playfully. "Get your head out of the clouds."

No sooner does Elizabeth sit down to get some work done, she's paged to the main work area of the dispatch to speak with Tyler, who she finds out is William's second assistant after Ronald.

She's instantly nervous. Going to the dispatch lobby means that William will see her as she is. The new her.

Even though she knows it will not matter in the least because of her new powers, she still checks her hair in the mirror, runs her hand through a couple of the long, tousled sapphire curls, re-applies some clear lipgloss, and sits in front of her office mirror for a minute before taking a deep breath. She doesn't need to worry. She looks absolutely breathtaking with minimal effort. She is the most beautiful in this entire world. Human or shinigami, she outclasses them all. She can do this.

Taking long, confident strides, she makes her way towards the dispatch lobby, towards her fate.

**Hi guys, darkironprincess17 checking in! (Finally) Sorry about the wait once again. It seems to be happening often. I refined the story once again while I was away. While I was taking my dear sweet time deciding what on earth I was going to do with this story, my computer broke down AGAIN. ARFGGJNFANSLKANDSNFJGHBIDJS. I have no idea what I'm going to do with this thing. It's ANCIENT. So I had to wait to get it fixed again before I could write. :s**

**Anyways, with the story, I've narrowed down several points that I wanted to clear up. It might have been confusing, but Elizabeth is NOT paired with Sebastian. The SebastianxOC thing is a different OC, not Elizabeth. She's already taken XD (In her heart). Sebastian will only appear in the story once or twice, unfortunately, and never comes into contact with this OC. He's got some interesting connections with her, and you'll never guess who it is! No, I'm being serious. It's totally not who you think it is! **

**But either way, that's that. Have fun brooding about the new ideas. I'm going to throw in a couple major plot twists you'll never see coming near the end. Or you might, if you're familiar with the song this story is based on. Mweeheehehheeeeee! Enjoy the wait!**

**~~darkironprincess17**


	7. meet

Chapter 7: meeting

As she walks down the hallway, Elizabeth loses more and more of her confidence with every step. She seems confident, but in reality, she is terrified. She has no idea how to act, or how not to make herself seem like an idiot. She's scared out of her mind that the same problem will happen as it did when she visited William on the other week.

Though her appearance has changed significantly, she has no idea if her physical strength has changed because of the spell. She's worried that she's still as clumsy as she was earlier. But then again, if she was, she would have tripped over her heels multiple times by now. She pauses at the door, gathering her strength.

She shakes her head, and walks in the door. Almost as soon as she takes a step forwards, people notice. Hushed whispers fill the dispatch lobby, which is filled with much more people than usual.

"Who is that?"

"I don't know. Probably a new recruit."

"She's so beautiful."

"Yeah... prettier than any chick I've ever seen."

She walks quickly, confidently and with purpose, not really stopping for anything. She realizes that she has no idea where Tyler's desk is. Who to ask... Her eyes focus on Ronald, who's lounging in a corner. She walks over to him. She feels bad for Marian, so she doesn't use her spell. She changes her focus so quickly that it seems like talking to Ronald was her purpose this entire time.

"Hey there, beautiful" Ronald says with a wink. "What can I do for you?"

"Do you know where I could find Tyler?"

"Hmm... What's his last name?"

"Birch. I was called down to see him just a few minutes ago."

"Oh, that Tyler. Ok, head down to cabinet on the left."

"Thank you."

She walks away, evidently aware that everyone's eyes are still trailed on her. She's not used to so much attention. She barely knows how to act. But all her emotions are always hidden under the beautiful and perfect mask of her new face. She collects herself, knowing that the dark girl living in her mind is always there to help her.

She walks into the other cabinet door with a gentle knock, and opens the door. Her heart skips a beat. William is there, surprisingly, standing beside Tyler's desk, and seemingly correcting a few of Tyler's mistakes. They both look up as she walks in. She's so nervous. The flood of emotions, however, create the spell and make it that much more binding. Better a stronger dose at the beginning, so he can't resist.

The black mark glows and burns hotter than ever before as her powerful aura encases the room. She stares at William with the full force of her gaze. Her eyes flash purple, this time even her lenses matching the bright colour with it's intensity. His eyes widen as they flash purple immediately after. She can tell that he's fighting it, but because he was taken aback, he can do nothing as the spell sweeps through his head, planting the poisonous weed in his mind.

He doesn't lose his balance like the rest, but he does jump like he's been startled by a loud noise. He looks at her with an eyebrow raised. Tyler, being the only other person in the room and already under the spell, notices nothing and smiles brightly as Elizabeth approaches. William however, frowns even more.

"I don't seem to recall your face, Madam. Are you a new recruit?" He asks in his sharp, clear voice. She lifts her head a fraction higher. She knows that he finally sees her. Though he might pretend not to, he knows she's there. He sees her. He sees who she is at last. She smiles gently, in the way that's won over so many people as her new self.

"We've rarely met, Mr. Spears." She says. "I work in the HR department."

William nods, but he still seems a bit confused about something.

"Have you ever worked as a dispatch reaper?" He's still trying to put a name and a face together. It's unlike William not to know a name to a face. He knows almost everyone who works here. And yet he cannot seem to remember the face of this impossibly beautiful woman. He's sure that he would have remembered her had he seen her earlier. Her hair is so particular, such an odd colour for a shinigami, that he would have remembered it anywhere.

"I've had the pleasure of working with you only once, sir, at the beginning of my career. I looked very different back then." She says.

William still looks a bit lost, seeing as he's frowning even more than usual. "What's your name, Miss...?"

"May." She says. "Elizabeth May."

He nods. He looks like he's about to say something else, but Tyler interrupts. _Poor guy._ Elizabeth thinks. _I do believe I overdosed on his spell as well. It's almost like he's dying to talk to me._

"Miss Elizabeth!" He says with a smile. "It's so nice to see you again!" He smiles again, and it's obvious he means it.

"Yes, it is indeed, Tyler." She says, to show she remembers him. "Or do I call you 'sir', now that we're at work?" She asks with a coy smile.

"Oh, that's hardly necessary." A light blush colours his cheeks. "Either way, Elizabeth, we've got a bit of a job for you. We're short on dispatch reapers at the moment, and we've heard you're the best of your department."

She laughs. "Oh, I'm far from the best, but I'll gladly take the offer. I still have a few to-die lists to finish, but after that I'm free to work." She raises an eyebrow. "I'd better be paid for this."

Tyler laughs. "Of course. I'll see you again tomorrow then, miss Elizabeth."

"Yes. Tomorrow then. Good bye, Tyler. Goodbye, Mr. Spears"

"Bye" Tyler smiles.

William is completely silent, but she can feel that he's looking at her, even as she leaves.

Was it a success? She doesn't know. But she'll have to see again tomorrow. She'll finish his to-die list with extra care, and give it to him tomorrow. She'll enforce the spell again. For now, all she can do is wait, and hope their meeting was strong enough.


End file.
